There’s a Great book called “The Game” by Neil Strauss that I just finished reading. Ostensibly it’s a book about a writer that gets involved in the world of pick up artists. Assuming his whole story is as true as he claims, he spends at least two years and becomes the worlds #1 PUA. The psychology of picking up women, the acronyms, the competition. The characters are great, the writing is good and the story is strong. Despite all appearances otherwise, the book is really about being happy with yourself and not trying to fill holes in your life with things such as sex or drugs. It’s a story of personal growth. If you have the chance, pick it up. Afterwards, if you go sarging, you missed the point.

This weekend I went on my first FlickrMeet, where photograpers from Flickr *gasp* Meet up and shoot an event. I only met one guy at the Korean Cultural Center grand opening, but the event was planned in less than a day. There is another this Saturday where, hopefully, more will attend. Click HERE to see the event photos.

And of course, the links I’ve found recently, from Stumble and Reddit:

The Constitution 2.0: Two of my family members weren’t really aware that Habeus Corpus had been excised in recent legislation. When we talked about it, they really seemed to believe that this is a new war and a new time and that since, historically, civil rights were limited in war times, this was ok and obviously should occur now. They also seemed to be ok with ignoring the Geneva Convention. They argued that if France had had terrorists attack their buildings, they’d be doing the same thing, as if it would be ok for them to do it…. and thus now it’s ok if We do it. They said that if Shahin had been killed in war time, that I would be ok with it.

I guess the point is that you have to remove yourself from all those hypotheticals. You have to remove yourself from the anger and bias they incite. The “personal experience” so highly valued is actually a huge source of error. Objectivity is the way to go. Cold, rational, empirical logic is more effective. The kind of observations that point out that the war in Iraq is making terrorism worse are the kind we need to pay attention to. The kind of evidence that shows that torture is an awful way to get accurate information is the kind we need to look at.

During this argument, the two stated that they were just as unhappy with Bush, etc. How simple for them to say that, though they had voted for Bush previously. I claim those that vote a President into office should share some culpability, even if only morally. It shouldn’t be as easy as just switching sides and saying, ” Yeah we were wrong, we don’t like him now.” I was then asked if I should assume some of the cupability of what Clinton did. I asked, “What did Clinton do wrong?”

Two things were brought up. One was “what Clinton did.” Aghast, I correctly assumed this referenced the blow job. Yes he shouldn’t have lied about it, but the reality is, nothing really bad went on. Previous Presidents have done far worse things in the White house sexually. The second was a question; what did Clinton Do? the question was empty, as if Clinton had done Nothing during his time in office. Allow us to assume Clinton did nothing, though this is patently false. Did he lie us into wars? Did he take all of our money and spend us into an insanely high deficit? The comparisons between the two administrations could go on endlessly, but quickly we can see just how awful Bush’s is.

This argument flowed next to talking about taxes. Now here I tread on ground where I am not fully situated. I haven’t thought enough about the matter, nor do I know enough about it (aside from the fact that it’s overly complicated, has too many loopholes, favors the top %1, and needs to be changed). I’ve always been a fan of the flat percentage rate. Everyone pays 20% (or whatever is necessary) of what they make and voila, you’re done. But of course, this is far to simple for the reality of the situation. So I’m going to investigate the tax system and get back to you on this point when I’m done.

But until then, please realize that the Republican party needs to go. The Democrats are too weak to check them, and in all honesty, should probably go too. I’m telling you people, the green party and the libertarians need to team up. And you need to vote for them.